Yezidi survivor speaks to German parliament on sexual violence in conflict

BERLIN, Germany – The German parliament is hosting a panel to hear the stories of women Yezidi victims of ISIS. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the panel that will also include a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and a Muslim survivor of the Kosovo conflict.

“I will raise my voice against what happened and has been happening against the three thousand as they are sold seven times a day,” Yezidi survivor Nadiya told Rudaw about her planned speech on behalf of the estimated 3,000 Yezidis who remain in ISIS captivity.

The panel, titled ‘Sexual assault in every war is a weapon and breaking the silence will strengthen the freed,’ was jointly organized by Hawar Organization and Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party.

“I am going to tell my story as I had stayed under ISIS hands for eight months,” Nadiya said. She is from Kocho village, also home to Nadia Murad. The two were taken together to Mosul and held with each other for two days when they first captured by ISIS. While Nadia was kept in Mosul, Nadiya said she was taken to Tal Afar.

“Women are raped by forceful marriage," she said of ISIS’ crimes. “Children are taught the Quran at ISIS institutions brainwashing them and persuading them to become ISIS and eventually detonating themselves as suicide bombers.”

Her message to the world is to help free those still held by ISIS as well as those living in miserable conditions in tents and camps in the Kurdistan Region.

“They are in need of any assistance,” she said.

Nadiya thanked the German government for reaching out and helping the Yezidis. "Germany listened to us. They helped us with treatments," she said.

A judge from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is also in attendance at the conference. Yezidi advocacy groups have called for the ICC to open a case against ISIS militants. The court, however, does not have jurisdiction in Iraq.